The field of the disclosure relates generally to automated identification technologies, and more specifically, to methods and systems for managing the information created through various automated identification technology types.
Automated identification technologies (AIT) generally refers to, in combination of, such known identification and location technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), both passive and active, unique identification (UID) tags, ultra-wideband (UWB) radio frequency identification systems, Wi-Fi, and global positioning systems (GPS) to name a few. Systems that incorporate one or more AIT's may often be referred to as a hybrid AIT system or solution.
Across large enterprises, such as an aircraft manufacturer, multiple solutions of these AITs are incorporated, for example, for the tracking of various component parts, replaceable units, tooling, etc. that go into the fabrication and support of a modern platform, such as an aircraft. However, these multiple AITs are generally disparate, and disparate and distributed management of differing RFID solutions across an enterprise leads to inefficiencies, as well as the loss of information that could have been shared across multiple divisions within the enterprise.
As mentioned, the various divisions within an enterprise often do not have ubiquitous visibility of all AIT tracked items in the manufacturing, testing, and support processes. In addition to being inefficient, not having ubiquitous visibility is also ineffective as it does not allow for an integrated approach for data collection, metrics reporting, information security, systems integration and scalability in a distributed environment.